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Local media election diary: Holding power to account, putting sex in politics, an election without candidates and a bizarre endorsement

So how can the local press find a voice during elections while remaining neutral? At Trinity Mirror, the company I work for, we turned to readers and asked them to help shape local manifestos which have run in 24 of our titles.

The idea was simple: Get issues which matter to local readers heard. And while in this diary I’ve been rather critical of the efforts of Prime Minister David Cameron to engage with the local press, there’s no denying that’s exactly what he did when he visited Teesside earlier this week.

Labour, never to be outdone if they can help it, went one better in responding to the Gazette’s election manifesto, sending shadow chancellor Ed Balls to the Gazette’s offices to deal with the issues point by point. Like Mr Cameron, he too was happy to pose with the Gazette’s Manifesto emblem:

Parts of Teesside are key marginals in the general election, but (work loyalties to one side) it’s great to see politicians responding to the local media putting the voices of readers forward so vocally.

Talking of office visits, where should a prime minister shying away from taking part in leadership debates on national TV go to get out of the way ahead of them being broadcast?

Up until now I’d assumed that the Tories didn’t understand just how many readers local news organisations have these days. Hopefully Cameron has been disabused of this having seen the YP’s Chartbeat screen in action.

That said, a colleague reminded me the other day that Cameron doesn’t really have an excuse not to realise just how many people digital newsrooms reach these days – here’s a shot of Cameron getting the Birmingham Post and Mail tour in 2012 and having Chartbeat explained to him by Birmingham Post editor Stacey Barnfield:

The serious point being that the different approach to different regional newspapers is all a little baffling from the PM.

You have just one vote. And just one candidate

Nominations day normally brings more surprises on general election years than regular council election years with unusual candidates cropping up all over the place.

However, it’s the council elections which have drawn most attention at the East Anglian Daily Times which noted five council seats would effectively go uncontested as just one candidate for each has stepped forward: